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Sony's First-Party Division: As Large As MS And Nintendo Combined

Most everyone will agree that Sony's first-party titles are often amazing and so far this generation, we've seen some groundbreaking projects. And now we have a clue as to why: the first-party development division is big. ...really big.

According to VG247, SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller has said that the aforementioned division is actually just as big as Nintendo's and Microsoft's combined. What, you didn't think a tiny ragtag team was capable of making games like God of War III, did you? Added Koller:

"We have a tremendously creative group, and a line-up for the next few years that will bring a lot of new IP to the market, but will also being a lot of [tried and tested] franchises and new iterations to the PS3 in particular, but also PSP."

In the ongoing console war, excellent exclusives can - and usually do - translate to better hardware sales. Furthermore, as we see the twilight days of the third-party exclusive enveloping the industry, first-party productions may soon become the only system-exclusive projects left. The good news for Sony fans is that it's tough to argue against the PlayStation 3's lineup of impending exclusives, and it's no surprise at all to learn that many such titles are first-party games.

It takes a lot of intelligent and driven manpower to make awesome stuff in this day and age, so the bigger everything gets, the bigger the teams behind the scenes will get. Makes sense, right?

Let 'em buy all the studios they want. I'm a firm believer that an exclusive designed for the 360 starts out being sub-standard in comparison to a PS3 exclusive by virtue of the max capabilities of the respective consoles. Not to say that you can't have a great game for the 360 and a crap game for the PS3. But, out of the gate, the PS3 game has the edge simply because of blu-ray.

I have a sneaking suspicion this is why S-E decided to make a FFXIII and a FFXIII Versus. They wanted to have a multiplat game for the sake of sales, but they also wanted to have a really awesome game that pushed the envelope.

Anywayz, I said this months ago when people were all up-in-arms about MS stealing 3rd party exclusives. With Sony's first party studios, they really don't have much to worry about. I'm sure I could go the entire year only buying Sony exclusives and never miss a thing.

Actually, I have so far. The only game I've bought this year is KZ2, and don't really see anything coming up that I MUST have. I passed on RE5 and SF4.

While I agree with you about third party exclusives possibly becoming a thing of the past, what about the middle ground, a 'second party' exclusive? First party is a studio owned by the console maker. Third party is an independent company that does their own thing, but what about development houses not owned by a console maker and yet function almost like a first party developer?

Insomniac is not owned by Sony, yet they produce some AAA exclusive titles for PlayStation. Naughty Dog on the other hand is owned by Sony and so is clearly a first party developer.

From everything I read Insomniac is both proudly independent, and firmly lodged in the fold of Sony developers. Are you considering them to be 'first party'?

I think most journalists place first-party and "second-party" in the same category. Second-party devs are typically under contract by a console manufacturer, which almost makes them first-party by default. They are independently owned; separate from Sony, but for all intents and purposes, they make stuff for Sony.

Makes sense completely.
Everyone must remember that Square was orginally working for Nintendo exclusives, so them going to MS for things isin't a surprise it's like they have ants in their pants they can't stay still with one company and they tick all their fans off, not sure if they enjoy that or just don't care about the fans.

Makes complete sense and is the reason I decided on the PS3 first. Then Gears of War came along, which I just had to play.

You know having a one console generation was nice (see NES and PS2 era), this pretty much made it possible for all gamers to enjoy the industries best titles of the time. Although, having multiple consoles really shakes things up and makes the console manufacturers fight for consumer support. Meaning, more features for us. It's a Catch 22, I suppose.

I'll be keeping a keen eye on the industry when the tide turns and all the must-have software is on PS3. Just because I promise you I will get a little kick out of the journalists saying stuff like "Who saw this coming? The PS3 has surpassed 360 sales and has all the best software in the pipe. You go Sony!" Yeeeeah right, and 6 months ago you were wondering if it could ever be "saved" I get a kick out of media jumping on bandwagons as if they were always secretly leaning that way.

This is why I will always buy Sony consoles. With first/second party studios like Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Team Ico, Guerrilla Games, Polyphony Digital, Insomniac, etc. making games for Sony's systems you can count on having quality games to play. This is in stark contrast to M$ who only have about three studios left after closing down/letting go so many others over the past few years.

I would easily say 4 of my top 5 favourite games at the moment are ps3 exclusives. The quality of games spat out by 1st party developers is what makes me proud being a ps3 owner.Last edited by slackernz on 4/8/2009 4:14:42 AM

Sony better just take care of their second party developers like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, And their other studios...

I honestly don't think these developers will ever go exclusively to Xbox but with the current economic situation world wide they might be bought to be non exclusive to Sony. I'm certain that it will never go that route but you can never be 100% sure.

I'm sure these developers won't go that route but Sony better back them and stand by them all the way so they never have the need to "broaden their horizons"....

Sony's exclusive are the best games out there... Sure MS has some great exclusives but just imagine the tables were turned and Gears of War was an exclusive to the PS3 just imagine how great that game would have been?

I mean imagine Gears looking like Metal gear/KZ and with the physics of KZ....

Sony's machine is really starting to gain full momentum and like I said before I honestly don't see ANY machine rival it in the next couple of years. The only real competition it'll have will be the PC. But you'll also have to spend thousand of $ to keep upgrading your PC over the next couple of years where the PS3 can evolve just by using and learning the Cell technology.

I'm not really clued up on PC's so pls enlighten me if I'm wrong.

All Sony has to do is ensure they keep their big development houses under their wing and everything will be fine....